Our maid requested if Nikita (my wife) could teach English to her daughters. They are 12-14 year and know only the alphabets.
One of the daughters came yesterday evening for her first class. I was watching things as Nikita asked her to write down A-Z. First in capital then in small.
And she did not even understand what capital and small meant. The only language she can understand well is Telugu – her mother tongue. She does not also know Hindi well. It was funny to see them struggle with each other. Trying to understand each other by visual cues more than spoken words.
Fortunately, dad had brought a Rapidex English Speaking Course Telugu book for her. She started reading that. The book had Telugu sentences, their English translations, and pronunciation guide in Telugu. Learning by saying aloud seemed to work and that’s what they did yesterday.
Teaching English is not easy. Especially when both people don’t know each other’s language 😉
Let’s see how it goes.. Have you taught English to someone? What’s the best way?
Like Speaking aloud, you could try speaking to them only in English from now on. They might find it difficult at first but children are fast learners and adapters.
Its funny I came across your post; cos I have been watching some old episodes of “mind your language” on you tube. 🙂